Could San Diego and Tijuana Become First Dual-City Olympic Hosts in 2024?

PHOENIX, Arizona, April 29. WE'RE not going to know the name of the city that will host the 2024 Summer Olympics until 2017, but a unique bid is attempting to create the first official dual-country hosting collaboration.

An article from Inside the Games reports that San Diego and Tijuana are considering being joint hosts in 2024, not a far-fetched idea, considering the two cities are only 17 miles apart. The article says the United States Olympic Committee has received the bid proposal for the dual-city venture, one of 10 such proposals the USOC will take into consideration in the years leading up to the official request for bids, which is usually eight to nine years before the Olympics in question.

Los Angeles and Philadelphia were the other cities officially confirmed today by USOC CEO Scott Blackmun. The USOC had already expressed interest in continuing to bring the Olympics back to the United States, especially after coming close to winning the 2016 bid but losing it to Rio de Janeiro. The USOC said the United States would not submit a bid for the 2020 Games, and the host city for those Olympics will be announced later this year.

“When I looked at it, I said, 'We have to do this together with Tijuana'” said San Diego Mayor Bob Filner. However, it's likely the San Diego-Tijuana bid will be nothing more than a proposal and not likely to go much further. The International Olympic Committee does not allow dual-city bids, particularly those from different countries, according to the Inside the Games article.

If it were to go through, the two countries share unique opportunities for aquatic sports. Obviously, both cities are close to plenty of open water, allowing either city to host the 10K marathon swim — or possibly have the swimmers begin in one city in the Pacific Ocean and cross international waters to the finish line. As has been the case for every modern Olympics since 1908, new facilities would need to be built for the pool swimming events, as well as diving, synchronized swimming and water polo.